Know Thyself

Today, I went through a Strengths Builder class at work with my manager and the rest of my team (18 people). The four hour class was centered around the results of our StrengthsFinder Test Results. For context, StrengthsFinder is a timed test that identifies your patterns of thought, behavior, knowledge and skills and groups them together into "Themes". Your Top 5 themes (out of 34), as the instructor stated today, are synonymous with breathing. What's interesting is that out of 19 people, my number #1 theme -Command- was present in anyone's Top 10 (!).

Command is so rare that the instructor was intrigued enough to discuss this theme for 20 minutes. According to her, a rare percentage of the population has it their Top 5, even fewer still have it as their Top theme. The funny thing was that everyone, even the people that I don't directly work with stated that the description was right on. So here's the description for Command:

"Command leads you to take charge. Unlike some people, you feel no discomfort with imposing your views on others. On the contrary, once your opinion is formed, you need to share it with others. Once your goal is set, you feel restless until you have aligned others with you. You are not frightened by confrontation; rather you know that confrontation is the first step to resolution. Whereas other may avoid facing up to life's unpleasantness, you feel compelled to present the facts or the truth no matter how unpleasant it may be. You need things to be clear between people and challenge them to be clear-eyed and honest. You push them to take risks. You may even intimidate them. And while some may resent this, labeling you opinionated, they often willingly hand you the reins. People are drawn to those who take a stance and ask them to move in a certain direction. Therefore, people will be drawn to you. You have prescence. You have Command."


Sound like me? Somewhere, my best friend Alex is laughing because he has seen me time and again call people out on their crap. Whether it's someone acting cocky, or fake, or arrogant, I have a knack to take a stance and call them on it. And it's usually in front of everybody too.

I don't know why I do this, because it seems that this "Strength" would be perpetually pushing people away because I'm constantly running over people. Yet, the instructor said that this is a strength often found in Generals, CEOs and heads of State.

Thankfully, my employer offers personalized Strengths-based coaching to work on developing and managing these strengths. They suggest focussing on using this to find roles and tasks where I do this well, by mentioning the a list that Gallup put together of postive perceptions regarding Command. They are as follows: "Charismatic, Driven, Easy-to-Follow, Inspirational".

But she also talked about prescence. That I have a "prescence" whereever I go. She mentioned she observed how I interacted with my team during activities and though she had never met me before the class, she knew who I was because of the results she had been given from our tests.

And if I think about it, I've always loved leading. Scout Leadership, Sports Leadership, School Group Leadership- I just naturally seem to take charge and most people don't seem to object (I think). And the bit about calling people out, I just want to be candid. I hate going through life and regularly interacting with people that are not being honest with me, others, or themselves. And this is an area that I'm most called to: I am an open book. I speak exactly how I feel. I'm completely honest about who I am and my thoughts and my earnestness with whatever I'm experiencing. I don't know how to be any other way and I can't imagine anyone else detracting from the fullest and purest experience of life by allowing any moment to go by when they aren't being clear-eyed about the truth. That's just who I am.

The point is this: learning about yourself from the perspective of others is an experience all in its own. I have often wondered how other's view me. Well I got what I wished for, and even more.. 20 minutes of 18 people including your boss discuss and point out the positive and negative perceptions of that which is closest to your hardwiring is more draining than you anticipate. But this insight along with rest of my Top 5 - Competition, Restorative (fixing things), Ideation (idea creation), Strategic- have provided solace. I find solace in the fact that even though Gallup's assessment is not the ultimate answer to Travis Corrigan's soul, I now have a better articulation of how I act spontaneously. I get to compare and contrast my perspective of myself, with the perspectives of others and work to get somewhere in the middle so that everyone (including me) is happy.

My Challenge is this: Know Thyself. I would recommend taking the StrengthsFinder test and then coming to talk to me about your strengths. We can use the materials I have from the class and start looking at how you operate. I'm sure that it will be a useful tool in understanding how to make all the difference in the lives of those around you, as well as your own.